Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CARDIFF

CARDIFF, a town, two parishes, a subdistrict, and a district in Glamorgan. The town is a seaport, a borough, a headquarters of militia, and a polling place; and shares with Swansea the dignity of being the capital of the county. It stands on the Julian way, the river Taff, the Glamorgan canal, and the South Wales railway, 1½ mile N of the Bristol Channel, 11¾ miles SW of Newport, Monmouth, and 45¾ by railway ESE of Swansea. The tract around it is rich low land, artificially protected from inundation by spring tides, and overlooked on the north by well-wooded hills. Great works, variously railway, canal, and docks, connect it with the Bristol Channel; the Taff-Vale and the Rhymney railways connect it with the rich mineral fields of Glamorgan and Monmouth; and the South Wales railway, with its ramifications and connexions, gives it communication with all parts of the kingdom.

Cardydd is the Welsh name of the place; and is supposed to be a corruption either of Caer-Taf, "the port of the Taff," or Caer-Didi, "the port of Didius." Didius was a Roman general, who succeeded Ostorius, in the command of the legions; and is thought to have had a camp here, on the Julian way. Jestyn-ap.Gwrgan, lord of Glamorgan, removed hither from Caerleon; raised some fortifications on the spot, probably around a previous stronghold; and gave assistance to the overthrow, in 1091, of Rhys, Prince of Wales. The Norman Fitzhamon, with twelve knights, had been taken into alliance with him; but turned against him, fought and defeated him on a battle ground in the neighbourhood, took possession of his fortifications and estates, and built a new strong castle at Cardiff. The manor descended from Fitzhamon to the De Clares, the De Spensers, the Beauchamps, and the Nevilles; passed, at Bosworth, to the Crown; was given to Herbert, first Earl of Pembroke; and went, by marriage, first to the Windsors, and next to the Marquis of Bute. Robert, Duke of Normandy, eldest son of the Conqueror, was kept a prisoner twenty-six years in the castle; and died here in 1144. The town afterwards was strongly fortified; and had an encompassing wall, of five gates. Owen Glendower took the castle and destroyed the town. The royalists held the place in the civil wars of the 17th century; and are said to have made such stout resistance here to Cromwell as to have been eventually overcome and expelled only by the aid of a traitor, who disclosed a subterraneous passage. Rawlins White, a poor but zealous protestant, in the terrible year 1555, was first imprisoned in the castle, and then burnt at the stake in the market place.

The ancient gates have disappeared; but portions of the walls on the east side, with a watch tower, are preserved. The castle adjoins the Taff; is partly ancient, partly modernized; and includes inhabited buildings, forming a seat of the Marquis of Bute. It consists of a spacious quadrangular court, defended toward the river by a lofty wall, and enclosed on the other side by a lofty earthwork. The gateway and the gate house tower are on the south side; and the latter is alleged to have been the prison of the Duke of Normandy, but shows clear marks of much later date. An artificial mound, 75 feet high, is on the north side: was evidently the site of an ancient edifice; and is now crowned by a polygonal shell and perpendicular English tower. The inhabited buildings are on the west side, toward the river; were partly renovated, partly built, about the beginning of the present century; include a fine central multangular tower, and some early English turrets; and contain pictures of the Herberts and the Windsors. Four monastic establishments were founded in the town and its vicinity, in the 12th and 13th centuries; some traces of one of them, and considerable ruins of another, still exist; and the buildings of the latter were long a seat of the Herberts.

The town was, not long ago, an ill-built, dirty village, but is now large, well-built, and agreeable. It possesses tolerably regular streets; is, in great measure, new; has been much improved in every part; and includes modern suburbs towards Roath and Maindy, at Penarth, Canton, and along the road to Llandaff. It displays great public spirit; and, owing to the docks being at some distance from the bulk of the population, it shows less of the unpleasant accompaniments of commerce than almost any other considerable seaport of the kingdom. The townhall is a good modern edifice; and was the scene of an "eisteddfod" in 1850. The county jail is on Mr. Howard's plan; was built in 1832, at a cost of £12,000; and has capacity for 164 male and 61 female prisoners. A handsome bridge, of five arches, built by Parry in 1796, spans the river. St. John's church is a plain Norman structure of the 13th century; has a lofty, conspicuous, and very beautiful tower, of perpendicular date and character, with open battlements and pinnacles; and contains two curious altar-tombs of Sir William and Sir John Herbert. St. Mary's church is a structure in strange taste, erected in 1842. St. Andrew's church was built in 1863, at a cost of £4,800; and is in the geometric decorated style. A chapel of ease in Roath was reconstructed from a secular building. in 1859. Two Baptist chapels are recent structures in the Lombardic style. A Roman Catholic church was built in 1861, at a cost of upwards of £4,000. A building, for free library and museum, was projected in 1869, to cost £12,900. Other public buildings are several dissenting chapels, a new neat hall of the Young Men's Christian Association, a market house, a custom house, a theatre, barracks, an infirmary, a free school, alms-houses, and a workhouse.

The Glamorgan canal, opened in 1794, and 25 miles long., commences in the Taff, near its mouth, with gates 27 feet wide; and has an area of 12¼ acres adapted to loading and discharging, with from 9 to 13 feet of water. The Taff-Vale railway, which is also the Rhymney railway to a deflecting point at Walnut-tree Bridge, commences at the harbour; and has a station there, called the Cardiff Docks station. The docks comprise the East and West Bute docks, with communication canal, a tidal dock, and three graving docks; and were constructed by the late Marquis of Bute, and by his trustees, at a cost of probably not less than a million of pounds. The West Bute dock was opened in 1839. Its length is 4,000 feet; its width 200 feet; height of water in springs 28 feet 8½ inches, at neaps 18 feet 7½ inches; width of sea-gates, 45 feet. The East Bute dock was constructed in three successive portions, and completed in 1860. Its length is 4,300 feet; its greatest width, 500 feet; height of water in springs, 31 feet 8½ inches, at neaps, 21 feet 7½ inches; width of sea-gates, 55 feet. The tidal dock was opened in 1857. Its length is ¼ of a mile; its width, 150 feet; average depth of water at springs, 26 feet 8½ inches, at neaps, 16 feet 7½ inches. All the docks are provided with steam cranes and staiths; the former capable of discharging 40 tons per hour, the latter capable of shipping 150 tons of coal per hour. The steam packet harbour has been undergoing an extension and improvement, at an estimated cost of about £10,000. An import warehouse was erected in 1860-1 at the north end of the East Bute dock, at a cost of about £9,000; and a large new basin and a low water pier at the mouth of the Taff, with other works, were in progress in 1869. The harbour of Penarth, at the mouth of the river Ely, opened in 1859, is also practically a harbour of Cardiff. See Penarth. The anchorage off the mouth of the Taff, protected by Penarth-head about 200 feet high, is very good.

The general trade of the port and the town arises from their being the outlet of the agricultural produce of a considerable tract of country, and specially of the mineral produce, coal and iron, of the Taff and its tributary valleys, brought hither by the canal and the railways, and attracted by the magnificent docks. The export of coal rose, in the twenty years following 1826, from 40,718 to 626,443 tons; and that of iron, from 64,303 to 222,491 tons. The vessels registered at the port, in the beginning of 1868, were 30 small sailing-vessels, of aggregately 857 tons; 55 larger sailing-vessels, of aggregately 17,960 tons; 33 small steam-vessels, of aggregately 606 tons; and 5 larger steam-vessels, of jointly 733 tons. The vessels which entered in 1867, from the British colonies and foreign countries, were 441 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 141,221 tons, 1,356 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 325,875 tons, 419 British steam-vessels, of aggregately 222,022 tons, and 28 foreign steam-vessels, of aggregately 11,667 tons; and coastwise, 2,015 sailing-vessels, of aggregately 165,961 tons, and 831 steam-vessels, of aggregately 81,965 tons. The vessels which cleared in 1857 were, for abroad, 3,829 sailing-vessels of 1,120,972 tons, and 644 steam-vessels of 347,390 tons; and coastwise, 7,397 vessels of 630,438 tons. The customs amounted, in 1858, to £16,647; in 1867, to £14,297. Steamers sail regularly to Burnham, Bristol, Ilfracombe, and Cork. The town has a head post office,‡ a railway station with telegraph, three banking offices, and four chief inns; and publishes two weekly newspapers. Markets are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays; and fairs on the second Wednesday of March, April, and May, and on 29 June, 19 Sept., and 30 Nov. Quarter sessions are held on 1 Jan. and 2 July; and assizes at the summer circuit. An area, exclusive of suburbs, but conterminate with the two parishes, forms the borough; is governed by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors; and unites with Cowbridge and Llantrisaint in sending a member to parliament. Electors of all the boroughs in 1868, 2,123. Direct taxes, £19,744. Pop. of Cardiff borough in 1841, 10,077; in 1861, 32,954. Houses, 4,606. The town gives the title of Baron to the Marquis of Bute. The famous King Arthur and Wilson the painter were natives.

The two parishes are St. John and St. Mary; and there are also chapelries of St. Andrew and All Saints, constituted in 1863 and in 1867. Acres, 2,321. Real property, £237,036; of which £91,831 are in railways, and £2,686 in gas-works. Pop., the same as the borough. The livings of St. John, St Mary, and All Saints are vicarages, and that of St. Andrew is a p. curacy, in the diocese of Llandaff. Value of St. John, £260;* of St. Mary and All Saints, each £200; of St. Andrew, not reported. Patron of St. John, the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester; of St. Mary, the Marquis of Bute; of All Saints, the Bishop of Llandaff; of St. Andrew, not reported. Charities, £137.-The subdistrict contains also the parishes of Roath, Llandaff, Radyr, St. Fagan, Cairau, Leckwith, Penarth, Cogan, Lavernock, Michaelstone-le-Pit, Llandongh-juxta-Penarth, St. Mellons, and Rumney,-the two last electorally in Monmouth. Acres, 26,543. Pop., 46,954. Houses, 7,080.—The district comprehends also the subdistrict of Caerphilly, containing the parishes of Eglwysilan, Ruddry, Lisvane, Llanedarn, Llanishen, Whitchurch, and part of Bedwas; the subdistrict of Llantrisaint, containing the parishes of Llantrisaint, Llantwitvairdre, Pentyrch, Pendoylan, St. Bride-super-Ely, Peterstone-super-Ely, and the parochial chapelry of Llanillterne; and the subdistrict of St. Nicholas, containing the parishes of St. Nicholas, St. Lythans, St. Andrew, St. George, Wenvoe, Bonvilston, Michaelstone-super-Ely, Sully, Cadoxton-juxta-Barry, Merthyr-Dovan, Barry, Porthkerry. Penmark. Llancarvan, Llantrithyd, and Welsh-St. Donats, and the extra-parochial tracts of Highlight and Llanvithin. Acres, 117,797. Poor-rates in 1866, £36,074. Pop. in 1861, 74,575. Houses, 12,710. Marriages in 1866, 677; births, 2,447,-of which 71 were illegitimate; deaths, 1,426,-of which 570 were at ages under 5 years, and 26 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 6,238; births, 22,636; deaths, 14,096. The places of worship in 1851 were 50 of the Church of England, with 9,188 sittings; 19 of Independents, with 5,038 s.; 24 of Baptists, with 6,184 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 200 s.; 18 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 2,601 s.; 25 of Calvinistic Methodists, with 5,731 s.; 1 undefined, with 60 s.; 1 of Roman Catholics, with 942 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 250 attendants. The schools were 33 public day schools, with 2,832 scholars; 40 private day schools, with 1,335 s.; and 75 Sunday schools, with 5,795 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, two parishes, a subdistrict, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Cardiff CP       Cardiff St John and St Mary AP       Cardiff SubD       Cardiff RegD/PLU       Glamorgan AncC
Place: Cardiff

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